The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is an encyclopaedic dictionary of qur’ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur’ānic studies. The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is the first comprehensive, multivolume reference work on the Qur’ān to appear in a Western language. Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online includes direct access to 62 Early Printed Western Qur’āns Online and the Electronic Qurʾān Concordance, a unique online finding aid for textual research.

One of several Jewish clans of Medina (q.v.) in pre- and early Islamic times (see jews and judaism; tribes and clans; pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān). In the Islamic tradition, they are usually considered part of the triad of important Medinan Jewish clans that also includes the Banū Qaynuqāʿ (see qaynuqāʿ ) and the Banū Qurayẓa, though often only the Naḍīr and the Qurayẓa (q.v.) are mentioned. The latter two were sometimes called
al- kāhinān, “the two priest clans” and Arabic sources provide an Arabicized “Israelite” genealogy of the Naḍīr reaching back to Aaron (q.v.; Hārūn). The actu…

A major Arab urban center of pre-Islamic south Arabia, not attested by name in the Qurʾān, but probably alluded to in q 34:18 and 85:10. The dominant group of the city was the tribe of Balḥārith, the chief clan of whom was Banū ʿAbd al-Madān (see tribes and clans; arabs; pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān). Najrān was both an agricultural and an industrial center producing cereals, fruits, vegetables, leather and textiles (see hides and fleece; hunting and fishing; city; agriculture and vegetation). It was also a caravan (q.v.) city, at which the celebrated spice route bifurc…

Najrān was a major urban centre of pre-Islamic south Arabia that, although not directly referred to in the Qurʾān, is probably alluded to in Q 34:18 and 85:10. Dominating the city was the Balḥārith tribe, whose chief clan was the Banū ʿAbd al-Madān (see tribes and clans; Arabs; pre-Islamic Arabia and the Qurʾān). Najrān was both an agricultural and an industrial centre, and produced cereals, fruits, vegetables, leather, and textiles (see hides and fleece; hunting and fishing; city; agriculture and vegetation). It was also a caravan city, where the famous spice route split, with…

The proper personal name as well as the titles and other additional names Muḥammad (q.v.) has claimed, or by which Muslims have recognized him. ¶
The personal name of the Prophet According to the rules of Arabic nomenclature, the full personal name of Islam's founder was Abū l-Qāsim Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Hāshimī al-Qurashī. The
kunya Abū l-Qāsim recalls that he was the father of a boy called al-Qāsim, who died at an early age. Some ḥadīths (see ḥadīth and the qurʾān ) sought to limit the use of this
kunya, after the time of Muḥammad (Déclais, La
kunya). The name Muḥammad, “worthy of prai…

The Qurʾān calls itself by a variety of names, which throw light on the various aspects under which it presents itself. A study of the names of the Qurʾān thus becomes part of the exercise in understanding the qurʾānic phenomenon. Scholars number differently the names the Qurʾān uses for itself. According to al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), the divine revelation (
tanzīl, see revelation and inspiration ) has four names:
qurʾān, furqān, kitāb, and
dhikr. Al-Ṭabarī hastens to add that, in the Arabic language (q.v.), each of these four names has “a meaning and an aspect” quite distinct…

Term found in early Muslim traditions on the Prophet's life (
sīra, see sīra and the qurʾān ), but not explicitly mentioned in the Qurʾān. Its original meaning was “the revealed law.” The word was later interpreted as a designation for the angel Gabriel (q.v.; Jibrīl). In an early Arabic translation of a gospel fragment, the Greek expression
en tō nomō autōn (
John 15:25), which means “the law of the Jews,” i.e. the Torah (q.v.), is rendered as
fī l-nāmūs (Ibn Isḥāq,
Sīra, 150). This rendering is based on a Palestinian Syriac translation of the gospel (q.v.; Guillaume, Version, 292; see …

Stories of individuals and communities of the past, of varying length, many of which appear in numerous renditions throughout the qurʾānic text, but are found predominantly in the Meccan sūras of the Qurʾān (see chronology and the qurʾān ). Although the Qurʾān does relate the tales of prophets (see prophets and prophethood ) and other notable persons, tales that presumably were already familiar to the first auditors of the Qurʾān (see orality and writing in arabia; south arabia, religion in pre-islamic), the stories that are characterized as “narratives” contain certain req…

Creation, i.e. natural phenomena, as indications of God's existence and power. In Islamic belief the Qurʾān is God's final message
( risāla) conveyed by God's last messenger (q.v.;
rasūl) and Prophet (
nabī, see prophets and prophethood ), Muḥammad, to all humankind. Not only is it a final, yet primary, message but it is also a lucid and enlightening message, a
Qurʾān mubīn ( q 15:1; see names of the qurʾān ) which distinguishes the good from the bad (
qawl faṣl, q 86:13), and which was revealed ¶ in the Arabic language (q.v.; q 12:2). Elaborating some general semiotic principles, Roman Jakobson…